TEDxCMUQatar - Kody Gerkin - How Multicultural Awareness creates a World with No Boundaries

As the training director for Amigos de las Américas in Denver, Colorado, KODY GERKIN prepared high school students from the United States to live and work in Latin America during their summer vacations. Prior to moving to Denver, Kody spent two and a half years volunteering with the Peace Corps in Guatemala, Central America, working with women's groups on appropriate and sustainable technology projects. As a graduate student, Kody returned to Guatemala on a grant from the University of Denver in the summer of 2010 to study migration and its effects on the environment and to investigate human rights abuses among businesses owners in the capital of Guatemala, Guatemala City. Kody earned a BA in International Relations from Michigan State University ('06) and an MA in International Human Rights from the University of Denver('11).Kody will be discussing cross-cultural understanding as a means to render boundaries less meaningful. He plans on using the importance of maíz to indigenous Guatemalans as a bridge to understanding the importance of multicultural awareness. This is particularly relevant in a world in which tomorrow's leaders hope to move closer to a world with No Boundaries.

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